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Every two years, we marvel at the strength, power and speed of the world's best athletes as they compete in some of the most technical and physically challenging events in sport. And every two years, we wonder what makes those athletes so different from the millions of others who have strapped on a pair of skis, skates or running shoes. Is it better fitness? Better genes? Or is it superior training that makes the difference? If you're wondering what it takes to make Canada's Olympic team, here's a small sampling of the kind of athleticism needed to make the cut.

Cross-country skiing

These aerobically gifted athletes are born with the kind of aerobic power and endurance needed to excel at the international level.

"All skiers have a high VO2max," said Jodi Hawley, exercise physiologist for Cross Country Ski Canada and the Sports Institute of Canada. Similar in physiology to runners, cross-country skiers vary in height, but tend to be generally slight in build.

In events that range in length from five to 50 kilometres, a typical cross-country ski race is about one-third flat, one-third uphill and onethird downhill. Good skiers have to maintain their speed, power and technique over the ascents, descents and flats while still leaving something in the tank for the sprint to the finish, which is where their superior aerobic power comes into play.

Considered a late development sport, a typical crosscountry ski athlete begins to specialize at 16 or 17 years of age. Most have been on skis from a young age, but they've also tried their hand at other sports.

"Our most successful athletes have done two or three other sports before taking up cross-country skiing," Hawley said.

As for the road to the Olympics, about 60 to 85 per cent of their training is on the snow. The rest of the time, you'll find cross-country athletes building their fitness on road bikes, mountain bikes and in the gym.

Luge

Luge athletes need to get on a sled early, as technique is imprinted at a young age.

"They need the base skills by age 12," said Walter Corey, High Performance Director of Luge Canada. "After that, they need experience on the track."

Run volume is key in the making of a luge athlete, with the ability to drive the sled honed after a minimum of 10 years improving aerodynamics, reaction time and finding that perfect line down the mountain.

As for the average body type of a luge athlete, they're tall and powerful. Most elite women are over 1.75 metres (5-foot-7) in height and weigh 70-plus kilograms (154 pounds). The men weigh in at 90-plus kilos (198 pounds) and are ideally at least 1.85 metres tall (6 feet).

"They can power clean a significant amount of weight," Corey said. "Men lift about 140 per cent of their body weight while women lift anywhere from 100-120 per cent of their body weight."

Despite all that size and power, luge athletes also need to be flexible in the back and hamstrings to facilitate a good start, have flexible feet to achieve the classic pigeontoed foot point that leads the sled down the mountain and a strong neck to hold that long aerodynamic position to the end of the run.

When they're not on the track, luge athletes are building fitness and power in the gym. And despite a sled position that has been likened to leaning back in a La-Z-Boy, it takes strength and endurance to hold an aerodynamic position from start to finish.

Speedskating

Long-and short-track speedskaters are very different athletes. Short track specialists are shorter, smaller and lighter than their longtrack counterparts, which makes them uniquely well suited for the tighter corners of the 111.12-metre oval track. They have superior anaerobic power to maintain the high level of speed it takes to win sprint events that range from 500 to 1,500 metres and take between 40 seconds and 2½ minutes to complete.

Long-track speedskaters compete on a 400-metre track and race longer distances (up to 5,000 metres for women and 10,000 metres for men). The sprinters in the group (those doing 500-1,500-metre distances) tend to look a bit more like their short-track counterparts while the longer distance athletes are taller and rely on a strong aerobic base to win.

What is similar between the two groups of athletes, however, is the road to Olympic glory.

"Balancing on a very thin blade takes a ton of skill," said Scott Maw, physiologist and strength coach at the Canadian Sport Institute. "Unless they learn that at a very early age, they can't catch up."

Speedskaters start to specialize in their mid-teens, before which Maw says they need to play a variety of sports. The U.S. team recruits a lot of athletes from in-line skating, but we Canadians tend to spend our early years on the ice.

The off-season of a shorttrack speedskater is very short, but during that time, they spend it in the gym building power. Long-track athletes also spend the off season in the gym but they often hop on a bike to sustain the kind of conditioning needed for longer races.

Curling

There was a time when fitness wasn't considered necessary for a sport that was thought to be more social than physical. But that has changed. Team Brad Jacobs, representing Canada at the Olympics, is known for its gym workouts and typically warm up in the gym prior to competing.

According to Paul Webster, national coach and Olympic team leader for curling, adding curling to the Olympics signified a change in how the curling community prepared to compete. Today's teams are younger and fitter than the teams of old.

"The front end person is big and strong," Webster said.

The sweeper's job requires 15 to 25 seconds of all-out effort, with 60 to 90 seconds of rest between rocks.

"They need a quick turnaround to maximal effort," said Webster, who noted that the Olympics is one of the longest bonspiels (Feb. 10-21) teams will ever experience.

How long does it take to build an Olympic curler? It's one of the few sports that you can take up later in life; skip Jennifer Jones is off to her first Olympics at age 39. Or you can be like skip Brad Jacobs and take up the sport at 10 and head to the Olympics at age 28.

In the off season, curlers work hard in the gym lifting weights and improving their aerobic and anaerobic conditioning. They're also often seen on the golf course, which is considered a complementary sport to curling.

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